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Company planning to partner with other carriers for permanent solution

By Lara Yamada

Published On: May 02 2013 05:46:00 PM HST

HONOLULU -

Hawaiian Telcom has seen its share of challenges since it formed in 1883. But now, it has a 21st century issue that's forcing the company to consider some costly changes.

Fiber optic cable are out of sight but running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

When a fire broke out in an unsuspecting place cutting off service, companies statewide knew something had to be done.

It was the nightmare engineer Daniel Matsutomi did not see coming.

"Basically all the fiber cables in here melted. You don't even see it at all. All you see in the outer sheath," said Matsutomi.

Police believe a homeless man started a fire in January on the underbelly of the H-1 Freeway viaduct that crippled miles of fiber optic cable and cut service for tens of thousands of customers, including military and emergency personnel.

It was second day on the job for Hawaiian Telcom COO Scott Barber and the early morning fire happened when staff is typically low.

"That single outage actually affected a number of carriers," said Barber.

Four months later, the remnants remain and the replacement cables are up, but still exposed.